The Committee received a memorandum containing the
Government's response which was published on the internet on 9 October 2008. The Committee published the
Government response, alongside oral evidence taken from the Secretary of State on 5 November and supplementary written evidence from Defra, on 22 January 2009.

A Government response is normally expected within 2 months of the Report's publication. Prior to receiving the Government's reply the Committee published the following letter from the Secretary of State to the Chairman regarding the delay to the Government response:

At its meeting on 30 March 2009 the Committee agreed to publish a letter received from Nigel Gibbens, Defra's Chief Veterinary Officer, dated 23 March 2009, regarding errors in an earlier letter sent to the Committee on Bovine TB statistics dated 19 February 2009. The Committee also agreed to publish the corrected version of the 19 February letter.

At its meeting on 11 June 2008 the Committee agreed to publish a letter received from Professor John Bourne dated 15 January 2008, and the Annex to Professor Sir David King's letter of 18 December 2007. As these documents referred to ongoing research they were not published with the Report.

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee originally held two oral evidence sessions in June 2007 in relation to an inquiry into Badgers and cattle TB: Final Report of the Independent Scientific Group.

The evidence sessions were timed to coincide with the public launch of the Final Report of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB.

Monday 26 November 2007
Dr Gareth Enticott, School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University, Dr Chris Cheeseman, Badger Ecologist, and Dr Robbie McDonald, Head of Wildlife Disease Ecology, Central Science Laboratory ; Professor John McInerney OBE, former Member of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB

Wednesday 24 October 2007
Professor John Bourne, Former Chairman, Professor Christl Donnelly, Former Deputy Chairman, and Professor Rosie Woodroffe, Former members of the Independent Scientific Group; Sir David King, Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government and Professor Mark Woolhouse, Epidemiologist, Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh